


Sparklers

by TopHatCat



Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Genre: Family, New Year's Eve, New Years, Pre-Video Game: Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018), Video Game: Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018), soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:48:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28472637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TopHatCat/pseuds/TopHatCat
Summary: Hosea and Dutch and their sons each have a history with New Years, apart and together. A fic for the end of a year and the start of a new one.
Relationships: John Marston & Hosea Matthews & Arthur Morgan & Dutch van der Linde
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	Sparklers

**Author's Note:**

  * For [platonicharmonics](https://archiveofourown.org/users/platonicharmonics/gifts), [Disishistory](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Disishistory/gifts).



John had spent a lot of New Years alone. The day was the same as every other, and the cheers of people in the streets annoyed him rather than excited him. All he wanted to do was fall asleep so he could forget about being cold and catch some rest before his father inevitably returned from another night out drinking. Just the same as every other night of the year.

Arthur lamented the fact he couldn’t clearly recall New Years spent with his mother. He had a vague recollection of warmth and light and the flickering magic of a handheld firework. But that had been before. New Years with Lyle had been spent drinking, and he’d been allowed to have more alcohol than usual. He never liked getting drunk with his father, but Lyle had found it fun, or funny, perhaps, so Arthur did it even though he’d feel sick for a day afterward.

Hosea’s New Year meant tearing down the old calendar and putting up a new one, and constantly forgetting to write the new date on things. He’d never held much stock in the start of a new year…it was simply another day in the long chain of never-ending dreary days that winter brought. The only good things were that the sunny days began growing longer again, and the dragging, dark nights shorter.

Dutch used to climb onto the rooftop of his house a few minutes before midnight, a bottle of soothing he’d stolen from the pantry in one hand and a pastry in the other. He’d watch the fireworks of the nearby town go up as the church bells rang and have his own little party under the stars…all by himself. Sometimes he’d let himself cry as the bells faded and the world grew quiet again.

The first year Dutch met Hosea, they’d spent New Years Eve in a city, pickpocketing all the well-to-do folks who’d gathered in the square to celebrate. After a tussle with some cops, a shopping trip, and a short stop at a shelter to drop off packages of food and clothing, they’d found a rooftop above the crowded streets and watched the fireworks while passing a bottle of champagne between them.

“New year, same me,” Hosea had drawled, taking a swig. “What a bunch of nonsense.”

“Don’t you have any resolutions?” Dutch had asked, and Hosea scoffed, handing him the bottle.

“What for? What’s gonna change?”

“A lot, I hope,” Dutch said, watching the fireworks burst overhead. “I get to travel with someone I like, first off. Haven’t celebrated New Years with anyone in…ever, actually.”

The first New Years Hosea spent with Dutch, he shared a bottle of champagne with the young man and mocked his passion for new beginnings on a chilly rooftop.

“I don’t hold much stock in the world suddenly shifting because there’s a new number at the end of the date,” he said. “Can’t start all over just like that.” He snapped his fingers and Dutch had shrugged.

“Who said anything about starting over?” the outlaw had drawn his knees to his chest, chin resting on folded arms. “It’s more like…turning a new page. Same book, same story, but a new scene. Anything could happen.”

Hosea had looked at him, dark eyes shining with the colors of the fireworks, and on a snowy roof in a dreary city with dreary people, the future suddenly looked a lot brighter.

Many things happened, that year and the following years, and they shared hot apple cider with Arthur the first New Years he spent with them. Dutch bought sparklers for all of them, a surprise he revealed on the eve of the new year, because they were too far from a city to see real fireworks. Arthur held the shimmering stick very still and watched the sparks pop and jump like they were having their own little party before fizzling out. When it died, Hosea put another in his hand and showed him and Dutch how to write their names in the air with glowing lines.

Later, when John joined them, Arthur taught him the same thing and John laughed and laughed as his new big brother inducted the new year by painting a penis in the air. Hosea and Dutch rolled their eyes and smiled, but the boys didn’t care.

Shortly before the end of 1898, Dutch crept into John’s room and tapped his shoulder, poked Arthur with the toe of his boot where the young man lay on a bedroll, and shook Hosea awake where he was buried under a pile of heavy quilts in the back room of the large house the gang had found for the winter. After sleepy blinks and confused mumbles, the three of them followed Dutch out into the snow-laden trees, grumbling about being woken and dragged out into the cold with no explanation. Their frowns and complaints had faded when the outlaw pulled four slender sticks from an inner pocket and distributed them amongst his family.

The sparklers were damp and took a moment to catch, and John’s didn’t start at all until the other three put theirs to the end of stick. Then they stood in a little circle in the dark forest and laughed as Hosea wrote their names and Dutch drew stars and John made loops of sparkling yellow in the crisp air. Arthur held his and simply watched the others, the golden light softly illuminating his smile for a brief, perfect moment as time stood still around them.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy New Year, everyone. We can make it a good one <3


End file.
